Guerrilla Warfare in simple terms means the effort of harassing an army by small armed bands. In other words, it is petty warfare. Generally we have 3 types of war i.e. total war, limited war and general war. The significance of Guerrilla warfare is that it is relevant to all these types of war.
Guerrilla Warfare is a form of warfare by which the strategically weaker side assumes the tactical offensive at places and times selected by it. History is witness to the fact that Guerrilla Warfare has never been resorted to by a militarily stronger side while mounting an offensive/attack. It is essentially the weapon of a strategically weaker side for tactical offensive at selected places and times.
This is borne out by any number of examples from history e.g. Russian partisans during German occupation/advance in World War II, China in the wake of Japanese occupation during World War II and more recently Afghanistan. A stronger side may resort to Guerrilla Warfare after it has been defeated e.g. Russian Guerrilla operations during the 2nd World War and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Having been ousted by the NATO forces the Taliban have regrouped as a guerrilla and terrorist force.
Guerrilla warfare is not a present day innovation. Historically, it was first fought in China in 360 BC (when emperor Huang employing guerrilla tactics succeeded in defeating the Miao race) and the concept has effectively survived through the centuries till the present day. "Guerrilla Warfare" means a little war and it has come to denote the irregular, non-professional civilian soldier who takes up arms to fight against professional military forces. The emphasis however, is not on taking over and retention of cities, townships or places. The primary, aim, as explained by Mao is to annihilate the fighting potentials, of the enemy. By continuously harassing the opponents with its 'hit and run' policy, a small troop of guerrillas successfully ties up a relatively larger body or soldiers. There are numerous examples where guerrilla warfare has achieved the purpose when conventional types of war have failed. History shows that Guerrilla Warfare has chiefly been the weapon of partisans, revolutionaries, rebels, communist inspired movements and more recently the vanguard of Islamic fundamentalism. During World War II in two years of combating partisans indulging in Guerrilla Warfare in Russia the German Army employed 300,000 soldiers.
Not only did the Army partisans tie up these troops but many a page in the German Wehrmacht archives is filled with descriptions which point to a feeling of hopelessness, growing in-intensity of nervousness and culminating into despair. Another example is that of Greece where 200,000 Nationalist troops were employed to combat only 30,000 Guerrillas. Another case is that of Fidel Castro of Cuba who with only 6,000 soldiers was able to overthrow the numerically very large Batista forces. It has been estimated that it takes approximately 10 regular soldiers to nullify one Guerrilla. By simple arithmetic, the number of troops needed to combat guerrillas could reach phenomenal figures. This is the basic military aim of a Guerrilla War i.e., to tie up and render immobile large bodies of regular soldiers and weaken their morale by waging a successful war of nerves. Though the military aim outlined above is basic, there are many Guerrilla operations conducted in which motives and purposes differ. For example, the motive of Soviet Guerrillas against the Germans during World War II was primarily to harass the German Rear and function as an intelligence agency. This objective varied from the motives of Ho-Chi-Minh of Indo China and Mao-Zedong in China, where their purposes were to overthrow the ruling government. Islamic fundamentalists are waging their war to establish their own brand of 'pure' Islamic religion.
There are certain characteristics identified with a Guerrilla Operations i.e., the exploitation of an unstable political situation, the gaining of popular support amongst the masses and the emphasis on the certain principles of war like concentration of force, advantageous use of the terrain and the effective use of the element of surprise. Of these, the political situation is of prime importance. No Guerrilla Warfare can be sustained without a political objective popular among the mass of people. Mao-ze-Dong states "If Guerrilla Warfare is without a political objective, it must fail. But, if it maintains a political objective which is incompatible with the political objective of the people there by failing to gain their support, then this too must fail". As opposed to a professional soldier, a Guerrilla is basically a civilian from the local population Popular Support once obtained, the Guerrilla becomes a formidable force which may numerically outnumber the Opposing troops, though it may lack in fire power.
There is no scope in the above case for Guerrilla Warfare to develop into a conventional war. The Guerrilla activities ceases the moment the regular troops launch an offensive. There is no example of any Guerrilla operations during a successful advance of a regular army.
However, once the Guerrilla is fighting an established army, it is only the beginning of a conventional war. As there is no recorded instance of a pure Guerrilla operation in the strictest term of overthrowing a National Government the conversion at a later stage after the weakening of the opposing army to conventional war and physical control is a natural corollary to Guerrilla Warfare.
Thus, Guerrilla Warfare is a phase of Warfare that cannot by itself attain complete victory. China, North Vietnam all started off as Guerrilla operations. But, once the opposing regular army was exhausted, the conventional methods of war were adopted, to gain total victory. This is what happened in Vietnam. The early stages of the guerrilla operations of the Viet Cong had towards the end turned into a full scale conventional war. No amount of Aerial bombing could alter the result.
A number of Guerrilla fighters have made a name for themselves in history and some have achieved almost legendary fame. The last world war produced at least half a dozen such men, the First World War a Lawrence, the South Africa war a De Wet the American civil war Mosby and, of course one can always think of 'Che', Garibaldi and Shivaji. In contrast, not a single anti-partisan fighter had made a name for himself. This clearly sums up the fact as to the almost total invincibility of a Guerrilla Operation. But on the positive side it must be said that it is only now the real menace of Guerrilla Warfare is being understood.
The western democracies and India including Russia and China are confronted with a new development - the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Countering it will be the challenge of the 21st century.
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